Review: High West Bourye (2015) and American Prairie (2015)
Utah-based High West is a fun distillery to try to keep up with. Blink and they’ve got a new product. Blink again and it’s gone, replaced with something else. It’s been a year since we last visited with High West and already things are evolving. Bourye — the bourbon and rye blend — was off…
Review: Wines of Ehlers Estate, 2015 Releases
St. Helena-based Ehlers is a high-end Napa winery producing a modest number of red-centric wines. Today we’re looking at a total of four 2015 releases, including 2014 whites/roses and 2012 reds. The fun starts below… 2014 Ehlers Estate Sauvignon Blanc St. Helena – Crisp and loaded with citrus, florals, and mineral notes, all wrapped up…
Review: Q Soda, Q Ginger Beer, and Q Grapefruit
Q Drinks is well known for its tonic, but like Fever-Tree, the company makes a wide range of cocktail mixers, all high-end products made with legitimate ingredients and botanicals. (You’ll notice the solids settling out in the ginger and grapefruit products, so be sure to gently mix them up a bit before serving.) Thoughts on three of…
Review: Pura Vida Silver Tequila
This 100% agave tequila is not to be confused with Vida or Dulce Vida, Pura Vida is a small brand with a focus on flavored tequilas. The company also makes straight tequila, including this unaged blanco. Pura Vida is in the process of moving to its own distillery; this sample is still produced at NOM 1414.…
Review: Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon (2015)
It’s been five years since I last reviewed Wild Turkey’s iconic bottling, Wild Turkey 101, and seven years since my first (early) review of the stuff. Here in 2015, it’s time to look at one of the mainstays of the bourbon world with fresh eyes and palates, no? (And to see if the whiskey has…
Review: Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015
The third annual release of Kilchoman’s Loch Gorm is here. As before, Loch Gorm is matured fully in ex-Oloroso sherry butts — but this year, a larger proportion of smaller sherry hogsheads were used to mature a portion of the whisky, as opposed to larger sherry butts. That’s a small change but it should increase the…
Review: Appleton Estate Signature Blend, Appleton Estate Reserve Blend, and Appleton Rare Blend 12 Years Old Rum (2015)
It’s been six years since we last reviewed Appleton‘s Jamaican-born rums, and the company has recently done some label and nomenclature updates across the line. The distillery tells us that the recipes and the juice inside (nor the Rubenesque bottle design) haven’t changed, so let’s take a fresh look at one of the icons of…
Review: Scales Sweet & Sour Mix and Margarita Mix
We reviewed the Bloody Mary mix from Scales a few months ago. Today we are taking a belated look at its no carb/no sugar sweet cocktail mixers, including a Sweet & Sour and a Margarita mix. Both are minimalist products flavored with sucralose. At 5 calories, it’s hard to come up with a less fattening…
